A Final Understanding
by lilsnape
Summary: Response to contest at Third Floor Corridor. 7th Year, AU, HBP spoilers. Harry is convinced to go back to Hogwarts by Remus. While at school he receives a letter with the location of Snape and sneaks out to confront him. What will he find?


**Disclaimer:** Definitely don't own any of it…….though I wish I did because I would most certainly be rich.

This is a response for the fanfiction contest at Third Floor Corridor. The contest is as follows:

7th Year, Post-HBP  
Harry over much debate, decides that he will, after all, return to Hogwarts. However, some time into the year, he receives an anonymous letter with some tempting information...it tells him where Severus Snape, the man he swore vengeance on, is in hiding. He decides he must sneak out of the school and go to that place, risking a trap, it isn't one, and he finds Snape...but will the man have some curious explanations for him? And even if he doesn't, can Harry really carry out his act of revenge?

It's exactly 2,775 words.

**A Final Understanding**

Three teens were standing in the middle of a field casting curses at one another. If you listened really hard, you could only hear them whispering. Of course, these teens were none other than Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. They were spending their summer at the Burrow trying to master speechless spells and curses. Hermione had mastered it first and was trying to help Harry and Ron with their technique. Harry was starting to get a hang of it and Ron was still struggling. After nearly four hours of practice, they decided to go inside and prepare for dinner.

Dinner was a lively affair, all the Weasley's were in attendance, minus Percy. Harry enjoyed his time with the red headed bunch. Bill and Fleur's wedding was simple but beautiful and no one thought of Dumbledore's death, Snape's betrayal, or anything to do with Voldemort. Now, however, they were discussing Hogwarts and the trio's decision not to go back for their final year. Molly had hounded the three ever since they returned from Privet Drive, "I still think it's important to complete your education," she exclaimed for the hundredth time.

Rolling his eyes at his mother, Ron started with the same rebuttal he had used every time she started up, "Mum! We already told you that we aren't going back! There's no reason!"

Harry and Hermione always stayed out of their arguments, and this was shaping up to be a big one. Ron and his mother were both getting red in the face when an owl arrived for Harry. He quietly excused himself from the table and walked into the garden.

_Harry,_

_I'm coming to the Burrow in a few days and I would really like to talk to you. Please, do not blow me off like you did last time. This is important!_

_Remus_

Harry sighed. He knew exactly what Remus wanted to talk about. It was what they all wanted to talk to him about, Hogwarts. He didn't want to go back; he wanted to start his search for the Horcrux's. That was what was important, figuring out and destroying Voldemort's tools to come back into power. He turned around to go back inside but Hermione was standing in front of him, expecting him to update her on the contents of his letter. "Hermione, it's from Remus. He's coming here in a few days and wants to talk to me."

"Well maybe he can talk you into going back. There might be a Horcrux in the school you know, or at least a clue as to what the other Horcrux's may be." Hermione had of course told him this already.

"I know! You've told me a thousand times. I just don't think it's a good idea. I wouldn't mind maybe going back during the summer to look but I don't think it's a good use of our time. We have to destroy those Horcrux's before Voldemort finds them or comes after me."

"Harry, just promise me you will listen to him." There was a slight desperation in her brown eyes that Harry just couldn't handle.

"Alright," he surrendered.

Three days later Remus Lupin arrived at the Burrow. He had to convince Harry that he needed to return to Hogwarts and that he needed as much information as possible to defeat the Dark Lord. He was greeted by all the Weasley's and quickly fell into the trap that was Molly Weasley's double chocolate and almond cookies. By the time he was done eating, about a dozen, he almost forgot why he came. Prying himself up from the table he sought out Harry.

Harry was flying around the field behind the house, when he saw Remus trying to get his attention. He flew down towards him and landed smoothly. Remus was smiling and rubbing his full belly. "Good afternoon, Harry."

"Remus," he said as he extended his hand.

Remus shook his hand, and smiled. "How have you been?"

"I'm fine Remus. Let's just get to it then, alright?" Harry didn't mean to say it so bitterly, but that's how it came out.

Remus was unfazed by Harry's tone and started as if he hadn't even heard him, "Have you thought more about returning to Hogwart's?"

"No," was Harry's simple reply.

"Harry," Remus said exasperatedly, "You have to go back and finish your education. It's so important because this year you are going to be learning more advanced material that will help you defeat Voldemort."

"I can't just give Voldemort more time to look for the Horcrux's! I need to be out there looking for them, finding a way to destroy them! If I give him all these months of free range to find them then it will put me further behind!" by the end of it, Harry was screaming, trying to make Remus understand his reasoning.

"Harry, please, go back. I'm begging you. Do this for me. If you find it's not helping you by being there then we can discuss you leaving," Remus was desperate now, trying to think of any way to get Harry to go back.

Fighting an internal battle with himself, weighing the pros and cons of going back, Harry finally gave up fighting. "Fine, I'll go. But if it isn't working out, I'm leaving."

"Thank you, Harry. Now, how about we go back inside for dinner, I'm sure Molly has prepared another amazing meal."

On September first, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Neville were on the Hogwart's Express chatting in their compartment. They talked about their summer and who would be teaching which subject. They knew the new Headmistress would be McGonagall and that Slughorn would probably still be the Potions professor. As always, they guessed who would be the Defense Against the Dark arts professor as well as who would now be the Head of House for Slytherin, assuming there was still a Slytherin house.

They had noticed the number of students that had arrived at the platform. It was unusually low and there was not air of excitement about returning to school. There was a feeling of anxiety about what would happen next and no one was in a particularly good mood. Ginny noticed, and pointed it out, that there seemed to be no Slytherin students boarding the train. This became even more evident when they disembarked the train.

The Great Hall was much like the train ride, quiet and sullen. Their suspicions about Slytherin were confirmed; not one person was sitting at the table. There were more students at Gryffindor than there were in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw combined. Only about 15 first year students walked in with the new Deputy Headmaster, Professor Flitwick. The students were sorted into the remaining three houses and McGonagall's speech was short and sweet.

"This year will be difficult but we will work hard to prepare you all for whatever happens next in this world. As with last year, Mr. Filch has a list of banned items posted on his door. Also, Remus Lupin has returned as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Let's have a good year and take our studies seriously. That is all." McGonagall looked worn out, emotionally and physically. The death of Dumbledore was a huge blow to her added to the fact that she now was running the school, she was barely hanging on.

The following month, Harry did as he promised Remus, he took his studies seriously and tried to take in as much as possible, while scrounging through the library looking for any possible information on the Horcrux's. One night, he was still in the library reading about the founding four looking for clues, an owl flew in from a window and landed right in front of him. Harry scanned the owl, not recognizing. He slowly took the letter from the owl and cast a few spells on it to check for hexes or anything that could possibly harm him. He opened the letter with trepidation.

_Potter,_

_I know you are looking for Snape. He can be found at Spinner's End, in a muggle section on the outskirts of London. It's the house with second to last on the street. I hope you find what you are looking for. _

The letter was unsigned, which caused Harry to doubt the validity of the letter. He left the library and headed back to Gryffindor Tower thinking about the letter he just received. Harry knew that he could be walking into a possible trap, but, if it wasn't then he would find Snape and figure out how to extract his revenge. In the end, he decided to sleep on it and see how he felt after about it all in the morning.

The following day the letter still rested on Harry's mind. Something was telling him that he should go find Spinner's End and confront Snape. He finally decided to take action; he would sneak out of the castle on Friday and find Snape. The only problem with his plan was trying to sneak out without being noticed. During the previous month of school, Harry had noticed that the staff had been watching him, trying not to be obvious about it, and not succeeding. He knew he could use his invisibility cloak to sneak out, but after that he needed a better plan. Smiling to himself Harry knew exactly what he was going to do.

Friday night, Harry snuck out of Hogwarts in his invisibility cloak. He walked to Hogsmeade and called for the Knight Bus. Stan Shunpike took his Galleons after Harry told him he wanted to go to the outskirts of London. In a flash, they were on their way. Arriving at the start of Spinner's End, Harry walked under the cloak all the way to the end of the street. There was a light on in the front room of that house that supposedly held Severus Snape.

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, he walked up to the house and opened the door using Alohamora. Without making a noise, Harry entered the house and looked around. Before him sat Severus Snape, sitting in a chair in front of a coffee table, looking directly at him.

"Hello, Potter," he said in his deep voice.

Harry took off his cloak and immediately pointed his wand at his ex-professor. "How did you know I was coming?" Harry was starting to feel a bit nervous about the whole thing, now that he was here.

"I wrote the letter you received, you idiot." Severus still had his temper, although he looked a bit worse for the wear, his clothes were ragged and he looked more pale and skinnier than usual. "I know what you must think about the night I killed Dumbledore."

He was interrupted by a seething reply from Harry, "Don't presume to know what I think about that night!"

"Oh I know exactly what you think Mr. Potter. I can see it. You still haven't mastered the art of Occlumency. A shame really," Severus continued as he shook his head, "even when you were fighting me I was giving you instructions to help you learn. Obviously, you still don't listen to your elders."

"You lost all my respect the minute you cast the killing curse at Dumbledore! You will pay for what you did!" Harry really wanted to throw the killing curse at Snape, but he couldn't. There was something off. He wasn't yelling at him or throwing curses at him, he was sitting there, seemingly without a wand, _talking_ to him.

"If you will get over your teenage hormones for one second I would like to show you exactly what you thought you saw." At this point, he uncovered a pensieve that was sitting in front of him on the coffee table.

Harry looked apprehensively at the pensieve. He didn't know if he trusted Snape enough to not do anything to him while he was looking in the stone basin.

Snape started before Harry could voice his concerns, "I assure you Potter that I will not harm you while you look at my memories. At this point what you need to know is what lies in these memories.

Harry sat down and hesitantly put his head towards the pensieve, casting a quick look at Snape before he entered the memories.

What he saw in the memories shocked him. He saw memories that showed a young Severus living with his abusive muggle father. How he was tortured in school by his father's gang, mostly his father and godfather.

He saw how desperate Snape was to find a place in this world, which caused him to join the Dark Lord in the first place. He saw Severus at the Three Broomstick's only hearing part of the prophesy that Trelawney was telling Dumbledore. He had been faithful then to Voldemort at that time and relayed the message. He felt the anguish Snape felt when he found out his one true friend, Lily Potter had been murdered, murdered because of the information he brought Voldemort about the prophesy. He saw Snape pleading with Dumbledore to give him a chance to redeem himself. He felt Snape's determination to help bring the Dark Lord down by spying.

He saw many memories of him interacting with Dumbledore and how they almost had a father/son relationship. He even saw last year, when Dumbledore told him he was slowly dying because of the ring on his finger. He felt Snape's worry and anguish that he couldn't help cure the one person who cared about him. He saw their conversation about his unbreakable vow to Narcissa about protecting Draco. He also witnessed the conversation when Dumbledore told him that if it came down to it and he was dying that he wanted Severus to kill him and fortify his position within the Death Eaters. He saw their many arguments about it, mostly Snape yelling that he couldn't and wouldn't do it and Dumbledore sitting there simply telling him he had to and that he would never hold it against him.

He saw Severus reporting to Voldemort about what happened that night. How Voldemort was pleased to have the headmaster dead, how he regaled Snape with praise, and how Voldemort trusted Snape enough to start giving him more information that could be used to hurt him.

Harry came out of the pensieve breathing deeply. He finally glanced at Snape and saw a beaten man who was struggling with killing the only father like figure he ever had. Harry now knew how difficult it was for him to do that and to continue on as a Death Eater like killing him was of no consequence.

"Now you know Potter. Does it change anything?" he asked quietly.

"Yes and no. I now understand why you did it, but why are you telling me this?" Harry hopped that Snape was still willing to be the spy they needed.

"I am still faithful to the light and I always will be. My actions were forced upon me that night. In that instant, I had to follow the instructions from the man I considered a father. I had to kill him, and kill a bit of myself in the process, to help be of service to the light. The only thing I gained from this is knowledge of the remaining Horcrux's and where they are hidden. I will share this information with you if you will do me a favor."

Skeptically he asked, "What kind of favor?"

"If I survive this war, I want you to promise me you will do everything within your power to make sure I don't end up in Azkaban." Snape knew he was asking a lot but knew he had the leverage to do so.

Harry knew he needed the information on the Horcrux's and that if Snape really was serious about this all then he would be one step ahead of Voldemort. "Alright, it's a deal."

Harry and Severus talked for about three hours about the Horcrux's, where to find them and how to destroy them. Harry left Spinner's End knowing he could do this and still defeat Voldemort. Two of the remaining Horcrux's were still at Hogwarts, and with the help of Slughorn and his friends, he knew they could easily be destroyed. Snape had told him he would keep him updated on any information that was necessary for him to have. In that single night, Harry learned there was more to people than meets the eye and that Albus Dumbledore was a brilliant man to actually had solid evidence to trust Snape enough to help Harry defeat Voldemort in the end.


End file.
